Public school enrollment increased by 3.34 percent this year,
and schools officials are scrambling to come up with creative
solutions to house the influx of students.
Public school enrollment increased by 3.34 percent this year, and schools officials are scrambling to come up with creative solutions to house the influx of students.
About 20 kindergartners at Las Animas Elementary School are learning their alphabets these days in the school’s bright, airy library. Bursting at the seams, the school grew by 57 students this year, which means two or three more classes, depending on size.
“All our classes are filled to capacity,” Principal Silvia Reyes said. “I have no classrooms, period.”
The school considered two rooms – the computer lab and the library – to turn into makeshift classrooms, Reyes said. With the technological infrastructure already in place for the lab, school officials decided to use the library as a temporary solution.
“We have the space, just not the classrooms,” Reyes said. “We had to make use of the facilities we have.”
Unlike many districts throughout the state, the Gilroy Unified School District is growing by leaps and bounds. The district grew by 335 students this year, bringing total enrollment to 10,367, said Roger Cornia, district enrollment coordinator. While sixth through 12th grade enrollment grew by about 2 percent, kindergarten through fifth grade enrollment grew by 4 percent, with higher growth at the kindergarten, fourth and fifth grade levels, according to district documents.
It’s not that the district wasn’t prepared for the jump in enrollment, Cornia said. The district just doesn’t have the funds to properly accommodate the growth. Enrollment projections were 48 students shy of actual enrollment, according to district documents. Officials predicted 9,882 students, not including those choosing alternative paths at the high school level, and 9,930 actually enrolled.
“We knew it was going to be extremely tight this year,” he said, “and there’s no money to alter that.
“That’s what we’re trying to fix for next year with the bond,” he said of the $150 million bond the district is hoping to pass this November to fund the construction of a new high school, modernize aging buildings and add new classrooms. The bond would help fund facilities in an economy where developer fees are not sufficient to cover the expense of skyrocketing construction prices and enrollment.
District projections gave school officials an accurate depiction of what the school year would bring and Cornia said the 335 extra students are coming to Gilroy for a number of reasons. Families sending their children to private schools are turning to public school education in tough times. Families who used to live in Los Banos and commute to Gilroy for work are moving closer to their jobs to save on gas money. Plus, “it’s cheaper to live in Gilroy than a lot of the Bay Area,” Cornia said.
Rod Kelley Elementary School, the largest elementary school in the district with 802 students, increased its total enrollment by more than 10 percent and added 35 more kindergartners to its roster this year, displacing a resource specialist to accommodate the growth. The specialist is now holding classes in the library throughout the day.
“We are housing kids in the library as well,” Principal Luis Carrillo said. “We didn’t expect the growth. When you’re tight for space, you have to adapt.”
Las Animas and Rod Kelley are both working out systems so that students will still have access to library books. At Rod Kelley, teachers will bring books directly to the classroom, Carrillo said, and Reyes is hoping to have traveling libraries on carts at Las Animas. Older students also have access to the library when the kindergarten class occupying the room is at recess, she added.
“The class loves it,” she said of the kindergartners’ enjoyment of their new classroom. “But we’re still losing our library.
“Having access to books is such an important part of education. The more kids read books, the better they will do academically. We want to make sure they have a selection.”
Both principals said they expected students to be housed in the library for the rest of the year and parents expressed concern with the temporary solution.
“It’s a brand new school,” said a Las Animas mother. “How can they not have enough room? It’s ludicrous that the district built a new school and, already, it’s not big enough.”
However, the district does not build schools that will stand half empty, Cornia said. Adding portables soon after construction is completed is a typical practice throughout the state, he said.
“We will have to start putting in portables all over the district,” he said. “You build a school for what you have. If you grow 300 a year and do that three years in a row, that’s 900 students. That’s a whole new school.”
Elementary schools aren’t the only ones feeling the squeeze. Ascencion Solorsano Middle School added four new portables to its campus this year to accommodate its burgeoning student population, largely due to students transferring in from other district middle schools, and Gilroy High School is ready to burst, Principal James Maxwell said.
“There’s no more room at the inn,” he said.
